Foreigners will not be allowed to bully Guyanese in oil sector - VP Jagdeo

Foreigners will not be allowed to bully Guyanese in oil sector – VP Jagdeo

Mar 26, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – Since the introduction of Guyana’s Local Content Legislation, Trinidadians commentators across the private sector have issued several statements challenging the document and its compliance with CARICOM’s Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. They believe it ought to be reviewed for grounds of compliance since the law could slow down the pace at which they can spread their tentacles in Guyana’s oil sector.

Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo

During a press conference held yesterday, Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, categorically stated that Guyana will not back down on its Local Content Law which protects the right of Guyanese to first access to opportunities in their oil sector. In fact, the Vice President said foreigners will not be allowed to bully Guyanese.
“We will not be bullied. Many believe that they can bully us now into removing the local content law that we have set aside for our people to improve on and Guyanese can now benefit from this,” Jadgeo told reporters.
The VP added that although Guyana has a treaty agreement with CARICOM, his government will not stand aside and allow any country to bully Guyanese for their own resources.
“We have treaty obligations and we are a member of CARICOM and we want to be a member of CARICOM. CARICOM is a valuable part of our family, so we will uphold our treaty obligations but somehow, they believe they have a God given right to displace Guyanese too, in our own country from our own resources and we are not going to stand by and allow that to happen regardless of how much they cuss me. I don’t care who cuss me,” said the VP.
He added, “We are not going to discriminate against Trinidadians. We want Trinidadians to come here… We are grateful to the support they have given to our people…but they have to come in partnership with our people and our people must not be treated as second class citizens.”
Guyana’s local content legislation was passed on the last day of 2021 to prevent the creation of monopolies by foreign entities while catering for the provision of capacity building programmes so that Guyanese would be able to provide high quality services and skills.
Provisions in the policy also cater for Guyanese to get equal payment or remuneration to that of expatriates once it was found that they both have similar qualifications and experience.
Apart from this, Guyana’s local content law also caters for Guyanese to have majority ownership in joint ventures with foreign companies.
The VP in January this year had stated during an interview he had with state owned television, National Communications Network (NCN), that “with the passage of the Local Content Law, the country will now be able to recover losses from the lopsided Exxon deal.”